Reply to: Opening hours/Binge Drinking

[The Lone Gunman]

I predict a rather large scrum for taxis at 5 to midnight in most places.

[Dundeegeorge]

It's a nice theory

but the uptake on the allowed increase in drinking hours may not be that high, so nothing will change, but because the media will no doubt focus on this for a while it will be reported as if armageddon is happening (to a greater extent than it already does).

[shaunbhoy]

The long and the short of it is that there will be no discernible fall in the amount of booze being drunk. However, that said, the same amount will be drunk over a longer period which will tend to reduce the rate at which people become out of control. There will be no need to yamsing your pints as the clock will not be ticking to the same extent it is now. Furthermore, there will be a marked drop in associated violence as drunken people can leave the pub whenever they are ready and flop into a waiting taxi to go home to chuck up, avoiding the volatile situations we currently see when literally thousands of bladdered imbeciles, all miffed at being turfed out of the pub whilst in the midst of enjoying themselves, are simultaneously hoofed out to fight over a handful of taxis.

[DodgyAgent]

That's assuming a zero growth in population and immigration.

No it was assuming a consistent growth rate, but my point was that the original statistic did not take population growth into account

[wobbegong]

A similar point was raised by Jeremy Clarkson when there was an outcry about the increasing traffic on the roads. I think someone worked out that if the number of car sales continued inexorably that by say (should there be a date here?) there would be something like 27 million vehicles on the roads. Clarkson pointed out that in this case every road user would have to be driving two cars at once!

That's assuming a zero growth in population and immigration.

[Xenophon]

I think selling alcohol at all in the UK is offensive and does not
take into account Britain's multicultural society and is insulting
to those for whom alcohol is not part of their religion

Milan.

Beautifully inflammatory post. Doubtless purposefully so, but can someone please bite nonetheless?

[milanbenes]

I think selling alcohol at all in the UK is offensive and does not
take into account Britain's multicultural society and is insulting
to those for whom alcohol is not part of their religion

Milan.

[xondo]

It seems to me that the British binge drink culture has nothing to do with opening hours, when abrod these "binge drinkers" are usually legless before the locals come out for a drink at 10pm. Still continue to pour beer down their thoats like there is no tomorrow.

Mine is a glass of red wine, cheers.........

[Joe Black]

Will Binge drinkers be encouraged to drink even more?, possibly...

Perhaps they'll just drink the same but go out a bit later and simply postpone any problems to a later hour...or perhaps people will still drink the same but over a longer time period and reduce the amount of drunkeness.

The main problem with the UK and alcohol as far as I see still come to two things, one the culture, and secondly (perhaps because of the culture) the number of places which promote excessive drinking, e.g. 2 for 1, happy hour etc, etc.

The idea though that its going to bring in some sort of cafe society like France/Belgium where you see people sitting in a bar drinking a mint tea, or having a quiet drink at 1am after a night out isn't something I envisage too soon.

[Captain Jack]

A similar point was raised by Jeremy Clarkson when there was an outcry about the increasing traffic on the roads. I think someone worked out that if the number of car sales continued inexorably that by say there would be something like 27 million vehicles on the roads. Clarkson pointed out that in this case every road user would have to be driving two cars at once!

Quite right DA. The government definition of a "binge" is ludicrous anyway: for a man more than 3-4 units in one sitting. So if I have two pints after work that's a binge? I don't think so.

I recall being a carefree young lad in Manchester 15 years ago and there was just as much riotous behaviour then as now. The difference is that now there are CCTV cameras everywhere and it is more visible.

[DodgyAgent]

We've been here before anyway. The Daily Mail and assorted hand wringers were telling us all that the world was going to come to an end and that Britain's economy was going to be washed away in a tide of alcohol and vomit when pubs were allowed to open during the afternoon. According to data published by the Economist last week, alcohol consumption per head fell after the last liberalisation of licensing hours.

It's all largely irrelevant anyway as the decision not to grant extended licenses has been taken by many local authorities. My borough would not even approve pubs to open until midnight on Fridays so we are effectively stuck with the old system anyway.

Anyone know a good alcohol disorder zone where I can go for a binge drink tomorrow evening?

A similar point was raised by Jeremy Clarkson when there was an outcry about the increasing traffic on the roads. I think someone worked out that if the number of car sales continued inexorably that by say there would be something like 27 million vehicles on the roads. Clarkson pointed out that in this case every road user would have to be driving two cars at once!

[Captain Jack]

We've been here before anyway. The Daily Mail and assorted hand wringers were telling us all that the world was going to come to an end and that Britain's economy was going to be washed away in a tide of alcohol and vomit when pubs were allowed to open during the afternoon. According to data published by the Economist last week, alcohol consumption per head fell after the last liberalisation of licensing hours.

It's all largely irrelevant anyway as the decision not to grant extended licenses has been taken by many local authorities. My borough would not even approve pubs to open until midnight on Fridays so we are effectively stuck with the old system anyway.

Anyone know a good alcohol disorder zone where I can go for a binge drink tomorrow evening?

[Xenophon]

BTW. Factoid 2 is wrong anyway. There is not more alcohol, just more time to drink it. You may have noticed that there were not millions of drunks queing up at the offie when the pubs were shut.

I think we will see a surge in booze related incidents untill the populace gets used to the new hours and adjusts its drinking habits.

I agree with The Sharp Shooter.

[Xenophon]

Factoid I:
More guns = more people get shot

Factoid II:
More alcohol = more drunks

Is this true? If there were zero guns then zero people would get shot, but would the overall deaths/injuries actually decrease? Surely the volume of other methods to harm people would just increase.

Alcohol is readily available now - albeit not from bars.

[The Lone Gunman]

BTW. Factoid 2 is wrong anyway. There is not more alcohol, just more time to drink it. You may have noticed that there were not millions of drunks queing up at the offie when the pubs were shut.

I think we will see a surge in booze related incidents untill the populace gets used to the new hours and adjusts its drinking habits.